The Great Library of Palanthas

Astinus' Office

Dominating the center of this room is a massive birch desk. Legend claims this desk has supported the thousands of volumes of history Astinus has recorded. A large pot of ink, a container of sharpened quills, and a candelabra complete the desks decorations. Small windows line the room, allowing light to trickle in and gently illuminate the entire room. A comfortable couch rests against the west wall. Tapestries hang on the walls between the windows. Shelves line the walls, filled with tomes of the more recent records of heroes and villians upon the face of Krynn.

The librarian notices you aren't reading anything... Astinus hands an enormous book to an Aesthetic standing by you. You note the spine bears the word 'Xuara' scribed in deep yellow ink. As you glance down at the page you read..

From the pages of Xuara's book..


Author: Xuara Date: Thu Aug 23 05:13:24 2018 Subject Xuara's Red Dragon Tale

I have a tale to share with all the land, one which I am hopeful will prevent anyone from making the same mistake as I. I was born and raised in a small isolated village to the far east of Klarbardin. Our village was regularly terrorized by a fearsome red dragon who seemed to take perverse pleasure in torturing, but not killing us. This went on for years, until the villagers got tired of it. All of the warriors in the village decided to band together to destroy the beast. However, being the nature lover I have always been, I did not want to see any creature harmed, and foolishly believed I could reason with the dragon and come to some sort of compromise. Without a word to the village, I set off into the mountains, confident that I could negotiate with this terrifying beast. As I approached its lair, a cold feeling of dread washed over me, but I stubbornly brushed it aside and continued inside. It didn't take long to find the dragon, as I could hear it breathing, deep inside the cave. I approached cautiously. The dragon gazed directly into my eyes very intently, with a cold stare that drove straight into my bones. Nonetheless, I returned its gaze and made my proposal. I pleaded with the dragon to stop terrorizing us. I insisted that we would do anything he asked if he'd just leave us alone. At least I assumed it was a he, since it never actually spoke to me. What a fool I was, attempting to negotiate with a red dragon. After a minute or two, it got tired of hearing me try to rationalize why we wanted it to stop. Red dragons, after all, will do as they please. With a swift movement, the dragon raised his gigantic foot into the air, then with finely calculated pressure, stomped on and crushed my feeble body, but left me alive and unable to move. He wanted to instill fear into my heart and the hearts of my people. He wanted me to live to tell the tale, so that fear would spread like wildfire through the entire region. With one giant thrust, he then tossed my badly damaged body down the mountain, where it landed in a shallow, muddy stream. That was where my people found me, barely alive. They rushed me to the village healer, who barely managed to save my life, and miraculously I made a full recovery. But my experience that day would forever be with me. Never try to reason with a red dragon. Some creatures really are just plain bad. In the end, every warrior from my village, as well as a large contingent from Klarbardin and many other warriorrs from other races banded together to destroy the beast, who had expanded the range of its ferocious attacks. It took hundreds of warriors, an enormous army, to finally subdue the beast, and more than half were killed in the process, but this red dragon would never bother anyone again. The warriors raided the dragon's hoard and split it between them all, more than enough to make them all quite wealthy, and I learned a valuable lesson that day which will be with me the rest of my life. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be adventurous, and to help your people, but one must carefully consider if they are truly up to the task, and one must never take on such a fearsome dragon singlehandedly. I wish anyone who reads this story wisdom, strength, and good fortune on their adventures, but always remember to tread with care.

Author: Xuara Date: Wed Sep 5 01:06:09 2018 Subject How I Became a Ranger

As you may know, I am a newly trained ranger, still young and still in need of further training. What you don't know, however, is how I chose to become a ranger. When I was a child, we used to go on long camping trips, weeks at a time in the wilderness. Large groups of children would be accompanied by seasoned rangers who would guide us, steer us clear of danger, and amaze us with their impressive abilities in nature. However, it was in the night that their skills, coupled with some amazing storytelling abilities, inspired me to follow this path. One night, we were all sitting around a big campfire, just after having a delicious meal of fish that we'd been taught to catch and cook ourselves. We were relaxing and conversing when one of the camp leaders decided to tell us a ghost story, with the help of some of his friends. One of them left, for what reason we did not know, but we listened intently to his story. He told of a creature of the night, one which is unpredictable and has been known to randomly appear at the camps of many peoples. Sometimes it would attack them. Others it would simply observe, and still others, it would simply do mischievous things to tease people. It was called a koractilomus and although no one had proof of its existence, many had told stories of encounters with this puzzling beast. During the tale of one attack, the camp leader described how one of the villagers fired an arrow with exceptional marxmanship, nearly hitting the creature and causing it to disappear. Another of the rangers conducted a demonstration of this prowess, aiming his bow and arrow at a small fruit on a nearby tree, hitting it directly and knocking it from its limb. All of us children were astonished. In another part of the tale, he spoke of a ranger who was able to summon a ferocious lava beast to scare off the koractilomus. Another of the rangers did just that as a demonstration. We all nearly jumped out of our skins, but when we saw the level of control he had over the creature, our fears subsided. He dismissed the lava beast and it retreated back into the mountains. Finally, in another terrifying tale, he described how the beast stalked a group of campers, just like us, then surprised them with a vicious sneak attack so fast that they couldn't see what hit them. The ranger who had left a few minutes before was still nowhere to be seen, but as we later learned, lay in wait, stealthily creeping up on us. It was the middle of autumn and there were leaves littering the ground all around us, but we could hear nothing. As the head ranger described the sneak attack, the other man slowly crept ever closer. Just when we heard that the creature leapt out of the nearby bushes and attacked, the missing ranger sprang out, shouting and waving his arms and just causing a big comotion. While the rest of the children were petrified with fear, I was intrigued and inspired. I wanted to do what they could do. I wanted to be such a great marxman that I could shoot a fruit off a tree from a long distance. I wanted to be able to summon a lava beast to accompany on my adventures, and I wanted to be able to sneak up on someone so silently that even the rustling of the leaves couldn't be heard by my quarry. From that night on, I dedicated my entire life to the study of nature, to understanding its intricacies, and to using it in any way I could to aid me in my travels. So that is the story of how I became a ranger. I hope to one day inspire others to follow the same path, as it is a noble one with lots of great benefits.



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He states simply 'You might start with that one.. or you could take a look at the latest story..'

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The Storytellers of Ansalon, The DragonLance MUD

Astinus points to the massive wall of books behind him and bids you to make a selection.


Authors: All|A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

Xaephran
Xandralas
Xandros
Xanra

Xarius
Xaviar
Xenagos
Xethan

Xhanfest
Xiaofei
Xithious
Xizegue

Xorn
Xuara

Astinus says 'There are 14 authors starting with the letter X who have stories in the Palanthas library.'
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